Using RC Cars is fun, but how will the weather affect your fun? Personally I don’t love the snow but the question is, does your car? And how will it affect your performance in these conditions? Let’s see.
Can RC Cars go in snow? Yes they can, however, not all RC cars are designed to run in these tough conditions. If you run these cars carelessly in cold or wet season, you will end up damaging them severely.
You can avoid this damage by simply maintaining your RC car from time to time.
We know that you all like to have fun in the snow with your RC cars and you would like to keep them in perfect condition. So, read on for the suggestions and tips on maintaining your RC car.
Should you Pre-Heat Nitro RC Cars before Racing?
You need to pre-heat your Nitro RC Car engine up to room temperature before you take it out in the snow. Because if you take it out directly into the cold weather, you will face difficulty in starting it. Nitro fuel can thicken up in cold weather and in extreme cases may even harm the engine. So, make sure you pay extra attention to its cleaning and storage, afterwards. In this way you can run your cars in the snow season and a little more fun.
However, you don’t need to pre-heat Nitro RC cars in warmer months.
How to Avoid Your Car Getting Rusty
Electronics don’t go well with snow and water. With your car being electronic, running it in wet or frozen places can harm the unprotected metal parts like drive shafts, hinge pins, and bearings.
Because of the moisture, the dust and mud sticks to the metal parts for a longer period of time. This can cause rust to start building up.
In order to avoid rust, apply light oil like WD40 or something similar on the metal parts before you start your car. We also advise you to clean you RC car thoroughly after every run.
Applying the oil beforehand will help you in cleaning your car afterwards and will also prevent your car from getting rust. You can use old paint brushes, paper towel, or a hair dryer for cleaning all the suspension parts of your car. If you clean and maintain your car regularly, it will just as good as new.
How Do You Protect the Car from Water Damage?
To protect the car from water damage, RC car companies often offer water protected servos, speed controls receivers etc.
But this might get a little expensive for you. Even if you have a waterproof RC car, it would obviously not last long, so you need to stay cautious about this. Luckily, we have got some effective tips for you.
As you operate your car frequently, you must know how often you race through water. Plan your water-proofing while keeping this in mind. Firstly, while cleaning your car, check the servo regularly because it is not always waterproof. Use electronic insulating tape to wrap around the servo case. This will prevent water from entering the case.
The motor of your car will need thorough attention if you race an electric car. To protect the motor, try covering it with balloons or those rubber boots where the wire attaches with the end bell. Do wipe away all the dirt and debris that has accumulated after every run.
For the speed controls protection, wrap them in the paper towels first and then put them into rubber balloons or something similar. You can do the same for protecting the receivers. Due to the temperature difference on the outside and inside of the balloon, condensation occurs so the paper towels will absorb it all.
The tips mentioned above are quite tedious but they will absolutely help prevent your RC car from water damage.
What are The Best RC Cars for Snow?
We have top 4 RC car models’ recommendations for you which are best for snow:
Traxxas Summit:
This is a 1/10 4WD Monster Truck model of Traxxas Summit with durability, versatility, and better off-read capability, specifically in the snow. It is equipped with the Titan 775, the largest motor of any electric monster truck. It comes with an amazing feature of Led illumination.
Kyosho Blizzard RC Truck:
Powered by two independent side by side motors, Kyosho blizzard clears every challenge that comes in its way. It moves in every direction with free control and full power.
Traxxas Stampede Monster Truck:
This RC Car is known for its legendary ruggedness and high performance. Traxxas Stampede is ultra-tough with long-arm suspension which is important for snow drive.
Traxxas E-Maxx Monster Truck:
With dual high-torque Titan motors, Traxxas E-Maxx comes with 16.8 volts of water proof EVX-2 power.
Should You Also Cover Your Battery?
You don’t need to cover the whole battery of your car to protect it from harm. The real trick is to prevent the exposed terminals the damage. Wrap the exposed terminals with the electric tape. Then seal the electrical tape with the liquid tape to the top.
Following this step will save your batteries from any water damage.
Will a Brushed Motor Help in the Snow?
If you have an RC car, you would already know whether your car model has a brushed or a brushless motor. For an ideal snow race, we do not recommend Brushed Motor. Let’s have a look at the reasons behind this claim.
As the name suggests, Brushed motors in RC cars use brushes when converting the electricity into motion. There are two brushes in the motor and they supply power to the motor windings that pushes against the commutator on the central shaft.
A friction is created between the brushes and the commutator. This friction uses more energy, making the brushed motor less efficient overall. A more powerful brushed motor will wear out even quicker in snow.
The brushes and the commutator need more and more maintenance over time and it can become expensive for you.
For younger and beginner RC Car users, we recommend the brushed motor RC cars for snow. Because the brushless motor cars can become more challenging for you to run on snow and you will struggle with the control over the car.
But overall, Brushless motor is the best for snow because it gives you higher speed. The more electrical energy you feed it, the more speed you will receive. So when choosing a RC car for fun time in snow, pick the brushless motor models.
What is the Difference Between a Brushed and Brushless Motor?
In a brushed motor, the brushes are used to deliver current inside the electric motor. But in a brushless motor, there is no current carrying commutators present.
So, the brushless motors are more efficient than brushed motors. For brushless motors the efficiency percentage is between 85-90% and brushed motors have 75-80% efficiency rate. Here, the difference in efficiency means that less power is being lost as heat and more of it is being converted into the rotational force.
Will an RC Truck Handle the Snow Better Than a Car?
In my opinion, an RC Truck (click here for the best 5 RC trucks for bashing) can handle the snow better than a car. Because RC trucks are versatile and more resilient to off road bumpy rides. You can drive them on smooth roads, gravel tracks, or in snow.
RC trucks have large amount of ground clearance because of their large and aggressive tires. This is the reason that the trucks can handle deeper tread patterns like sand, mud, snow, pebbles, and much more. The RC Trucks are meant for unlimited fun, no matter where you decide to drive them.
On the other hand, RC cars are usually designed to drive on smooth surface because they have limited amount of ground clearance. The car wheels do not move up and down a lot as they have low rolling resistance.
The cars are not intended to handle large obstructions. The stiff suspension springs of the car also limit the wheel travel. RC cars come in various models and there are expensive models which do run on snow but then again, the cars have limited resilience.
So, it depends on the specifications of your car model. With RC cars, you can surely have a lot of fun but that is only limited to smooth roads and less chafed roads.
Conclusion
If you follow our recommendations of best RC cars for snow, all four of them are trucks. This proves that RC truck can handle snow better. Of course, it also depends on your personal preference. It all depends on whether you want to race your RC car on just smooth tracks or have a whole lot of fun with it by racing it on all kinds of roads and in all the seasons.
